The 2024 Open Club Championships were contested over the weekend of 6 - 8 April in sunny conditions with little wind.
Three men's singles matches were played on the Friday evening and the remainder of the men's singles, men's doubles and women's doubles were completed by Sunday evening. At that time, two matches in the mixed doubles remained to be played plus all of the consolation draws matches, which should be completed in the next couple of weeks.
The Championships attracted entries by 35 players for the five events (men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles, women's doubles and mixed doubles) and, as for last year, it is pleasing to record the entries of several of our junior boys who are now playing in senior interclub teams. These juniors were very competitive in the men's events with Ethan Pryor winning the men's singles event and, with Warren Fraser, winning the men's doubles event as well.
The number of entries by men and boys in the events far outstripped the entries by women and girls, which is to be regretted. Only two women entered the women's singles event and only three women pairs contested the women's doubles event. However, a few more women entered the mixed doubles event.
Club Captain. Rosstan Mazey, used Tournament Planner (TP) to run all the events, with entries being made largely on-line. TP's programme makes the event draws with selected seedings once provided with current Match Hub rankings. TP also schedules matches over the three courts, given an estimate of average match duration.
The format retained for all matches was best of three sets, the first two being conventional advantage sets with tiebreakers and the third set a super tiebreaker. A sudden death point was played on the second deuce to move games along.
As in previous years, the Open Championships over the five events saw high standard tennis and, as in the past, a few matches were decided by the super tiebreaker set.
As might be expected, the semifinals of the men's singles were mainly contested by members playing in Premier interclub teams with the addition of Nathan Storey, last year's singles champion, who is now studying in Auckland. However, this year, he was defeated in the men's single final by Ethan Pryor. The men's doubles final was contested by Warren Fraser and Ethan Pryor versus Rosstan Mazey and Simon Ross, with Warren and Ethan winning the match.
In the women's events, with limited entries, Tricia Will, who withdrew from last year's singles event with an injured calf muscle, defeated Sharyn Westlake, last year's women's singles Champion, in the women's singles final (the only match of the event). With three only entries, the women's doubles event was decided by round robin matches, with Tricia Will and Wendy Thompson winning their two matches.
In the mixed doubles event, Miett and Robbie Fear toppled the top seeds in their second match thereby winning through to the final. Similarly, Megan and Gethyn Healy defeated the second seeds to reach the semifinals. However they lost that match aganst Shelley Best and Liam Bramwell, who went through to the final. Because of time constraints, the final was postponed and not played until 26 May, when Shelley and Liam prevaiied in a close match, decided in the super tie break set,against Miett and Robbie.
The mixed doubles consolation matches were not played because of lack of time.
For the record, the results of the main and consolation events to date are as follows:
Men's Singles
Winner: Ethan Pryor
Runner-up: Nathan Storey
Men's Singles (Consolation)
Winner:
Runner-up:
Women's Singles
Winner: Tricia Will
Runner-up: Sharyn Westlake
Men's Doubles
Winners: Warren Fraser & Ethan Pryor
Runners-up: Rosstan Mazey & Simon Ross
Men's Doubles (Consolation)
Winners:
Runners-up:
Women's Doubles:
Winners: Wendy Thompson & Tricia Will
Runners-up: Pip Groom & Diona Juriss
Mixed Doubles
Winners: Shelley Best & Liam Bramwell
Runners-up: Miett and Robbie Fear
Mixed Doubles (Consolation)
Winners:
Runners-up: